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"Recorded in 1982 at the band's final sessions, this two-song single finds the singer sounding less like The Fugs and more like The Mentors' El Duce, and the band in a less offensive and more serious mood.... Still, the title track is exquisite, with a bass line stolen from Vince Guaraldi's 'Linus & Lucy,' some of the queasiest tremelo-bar-damaged guitarwork on record, and a scraggly sick sound that may not be pretty but sure is interesting! High-speed high-end guitar diddling is also featured in perhaps the artiest (and most Captain Beefheart-esque) track the band ever recorded."--Mark Prindle

These copies are not in Mint condition, but they are all in excellent condition, never been played, and include an insert with photo and lyrics.

"Overall, the (CD’s) effect is a west desert circus of off-the-wall, sublime humor and a grab bag of instrumentation. A sticker sheet allows you to title the CD The Mystery Band's self-titled debut Swansong, Perfect Flaw, or one of many other possibilities. I am sure you could make your own, but just listen often. The unusual rhythms and vivid lyrics yield more secrets as you try them on."—Tom Schulte (CD Universe)

The Mystery Band was started as a conspiracy between Ace Farren Ford, Richard Snyder, Gary Riley & Pierre Dupuy in 1987. Originally a quintet including Maurice Jones (who left in 1996 for an illustrious solo career) the group debuted at the legendary and now defunct Palomino Club in North Hollywood in March of 1988.

Their first release was a 7 inch single entitled "Tasting The Smell Of Light" on SFTRI in 1989, followed several years later by their first CD, the now out-of-print "Insert Title Here" on Birdcage in 1996 (during the interim they managed to back the notorious British artist Savage Pencil on an abstract CD called "Ether Hogg", also on SFTRI, 1994).

In 1996 they contributed a track on the unlikely compilation "Merry Maladies" on Cleopatra (backing founder Ace Farren Ford on a "solo" track called "Scurvy") and closed the millennium by signing with the AIM Recording Company, who have released the LP "Leo, Gemini, Capricorns and Jones, Ltd." and the 7” EP "Rebels Without Applause" from the original first album sessions, and will shortly be reissuing the out-of-print debut CD as "Resume (Reinsert Title Here)." Naturally all releases contain previously un-issued tracks so that die-hard Mystery Band fans will have to have them all.

The band was joined by the legendary Larry Mister E. Easter, (veteran of such history making outings as Harvey Mandel's Cristo Redentor and 3 Linn County LPs) on horns and woodwinds in 2001.

The Ace & Duce/Transparency label has released a CD documenting Ace’s noise music historical past.

This compilation is pompously titled “Artificial Artist” and features several recordings of improvisational tweedlings from the years 1981-1987 for no particular reason, and features such luminaries as Dr. Odd, Ju Suk Reet Meate and Oblivia from Smegma, Phil Irwin and Marla Vee of Rancid Vat, M.T. Lubotamy & the Spudbub of the Child Molesters and the notorious Allergy Three, as well as John Paul Bormann, Donald Byrnes (South Pasadena Free Music Ensemble alumni), Karen Fowler, and Anne Harney. This threatens to be the first of several CDs from the archives of field recordings and not-so-field recordings from the Ace & Duce vaults.

Year:

2 009

Price:

$10.00

Track Listing:

Are We There Yet? – Recorded in a car on a plastic cassette recorder, January 23-25, 1981 from the documentary “Live in San Francisco with the Allergy 3”. (Ark Welding, Art Less, Ace Farren Ford)

These are original artworks created by Ace Farren Ford featuring his unique collage work on recycled postcards, created over the past 5-6 years. Various designs and sizes available. All proceeds go directly to the artist. Individual cards are approximately 4" x 6" (Small card), 6" x 8" (Medium card), 8.5" x 11" (Large card).

Many of Ace's postcard art was featured in a solo show at Beyond Baroque in Venice, CA June-July 2012.

Sealed archival copies of this out of print LP by the art-rock-punk ensemble Bpeople from Los Angeles. Bpeople, who existed between 1978 and 1982, featured LAFMSers Tom Recchion and Fredrik Nilsen, and also featured Alex Gibson and Pat Delaney (formerly of the Deadbeats). Originally formed in 1978 as Curtain with future Swans leader Mike Gira, the band quickly changed their name to Little Cripples, then to Strict IDs, and finally settled on Bpeople in 1979. They played tons of shows and had the privilege of playing with many of the leading art-rock, punk rock, and post-rock musicians and groups of the day: Captain Beefheart, B-52’s, Gang of Four, Suicide, New Order, DNA, Cabaret Voltaire, Dead Kennedys, DOA, Sleepers, Middle Class, and the Germs among others and formed the core of the legendary ASB, a loose affiliation of like-minded Los Angeles bands that included Human Hands, Monitor, and NON. Little know factoid: They were tapped to open for Joy Division in 1980 before Ian Curtis committed suicide on the eve of that bands US tour.

“Petrified Conditions—a full album of original recordings (some, but not all, previously issued on Bpeople EP and other vinyl) remixed in 1984-'85 by Alex Gibson and Paul B. Cutler—is a…convincing introduction to Bpeople's artsy sophistication. The sonic and stylistic variety is impressive, and Gibson's songwriting displays structural abilities far beyond the punk club milieu in which the band existed. A worthwhile archaeological find.”—Trouser Press

“Alex Gibson (vocals, guitar, main songwriter) led LA's Bpeople for several years around the turn of the decade. Beginning as the Little Cripples, the quartet (with the ubiquitous Paul Cutler on bass) turned into Bpeople after singer Michael Gira left for New York (forming Circus Mort and then the Swans). The eponymous 1981 eight-song mini-album consists of dark, moody music somewhere between Joy Division and Soft Cell, neither as jarring or desperately distorted as the former, nor as pervasively pop as the latter.”—Trouser Press

An album of incredible archival recordings by Brad Laner and Jim Goodalls 1980s noise orchestra. Featuring many other LAFMS members such as Rick Potts and Joseph Hammer , along with several unknown secret San Fernando Valley noise geniuses. An albums worth of epic spontaneous compositions created with tape recorders, short wave radios, cheap synths, random orchestral instruments and circuit bent gear and all unleashed in front of an unsuspecting audience.

"...we opened for WALL OF VOODOO and successfully pissed off 1000 screaming New Wave assholes"

Starting out back in August 1981 as Brad Laners solo project and self-confessed "pretentious art phase". It wasnt long before he started bringing friends , most notably Jim Goodall and Spencer Savage, and other players in and over the following years DEBT OF NATURE would expand into a much larger ensemble. Its those larger ensembles that are captured on this album with live recordings caught throughout the bands final two years. These tracks were originally programmed with a four 7" boxset in mind, but the flow of the pieces works just as well on the 12" format here.

Even though they only released a small number of cassettes throughout their lifespan, mostly on ARPH and Laners own Party Sound Tapes label. They appeared on numerous seminal Noise and Punk crossover compilations that emitted from Californias west coast on labels such as the Minutemen’s New Alliance imprint, New Underground, and Trance Port. Later other work appeared on Anomalous Records. Over the five to six years they existed the band played many shows throughout Los Angeles and up into the Bay Area.

DEBT OF NATURE is the starting block for both Laner and Goodalls musical trajectory that has now spanned three decades and taken in many points along the way. Both players recently resurfaced with a reformed MEDICINE , a band they formed who released material via Creation Records and Rick Rubins American Recordings. Prior to that they could be found alongside LAFMS mainstay Rick Potts and others in the STEAMING COILS. Laner was also a major player in FOURWAYCROSS and could be found at times in SAVAGE REPUBLIC, NERVOUS GENDER and many others. Jim Goodall would record for a number of years under the alias of D.D.DOBSON and his violent electronic works can be found on numerous experimental noise labels. He also played as a member of WHITEHOUSE during their comeback tour of the USA during 1993.—from the press release

“Dennis Duck Goes Disco” was originally released in September 1977 as LAFMS 2425 in a limited edition of 20 cassettes, individually signed and numbered. This exacting CD reissue features a great booklet with new liner notes by Dennis, and design by longtime friend Tom Recchion. The album was made entirely with a phonograph and records, utilizing skipping and pitch changes for most of the effects.

Duck is perhaps best loved for his tenure with Smegma and The Doo-Dooettes but he is also known as a drummer for The Dream Syndicate and Human Hands as well as working with Stillife, Paul Is Dead, and The Square Haircuts among others. However, “Dennis Duck Goes Disco” may well prove to be his most historically potent release. Recorded using nothing but turntables and vinyl, Duck uses his skills as a free drummer to manipulate stuck grooves, needle blats, analogue static and scratched discs into melodic/percussive assemblages that cross that daffy early-LAFMS style with very psychedelic miniatures, Industrial tone-poems, computerised number stations threat and funny vocal skits. Aspects of both Christian Marclay and Emil Beaulieau are flashed on here and there but overall this feels very much like a record made by a drummer using records. Anyone intent on chasing down the various manifestations of the legendary LAFMS movement will want to spend extended time in here. Reissue artwork and packaging by Tom Recchion. “DDGD is probably the LAFMS release I listened to the most.”--Ace Farren Ford

Dimmer is a duo comprising live sampling pioneer Thomas Dimuzio and tape-loop maestro Joseph Hammer. Swallowing audiences with their dark explorations of sound, Dimmer specializes in a symbiotic sound process as they continually loop, reloop, sample and resample within an interactive feedback circuit linking both artists. For their debut CD, Dimmer melds their recursive circuits into rich and seething sonic masses with subtle waves pulsing sound within sound. Ripe with theme and variation, The Shining Path suspends the listener over dim and dank planes on an aural trip spanning and scanning from a celestial vista. Nearly every aspect of Dimmer's live performances grace The Shining Path, yet this is not a live document, but rather a pastiche and reworking of everything Dimmer has accomplished in their years of performing as a duo.

“...music heavy with a sense of foreboding, but alive with slow motion detail...”—The Wire

Group improvisations intended to accompany a film on the Viking space probe in 1975. Includes the original Doo-Dooettes lineup; Dennis Duck, Juan Gomez, Fredrik Nilsen, Tom Recchion, Harold Schroeder. The package includes a 7” with a Doo-Dooettes version of Faust’s “Picnic On A Frozen River” recorded in 1978, a CD of “Think Space”, plus three inserts.

The 7” tracks recorded live at “Synthetic Eligunts”, a fashion show hosted by Kee Ran Sala, January 17, 1978 in Pasadena, California. One side of the 7” is 45 rpm, while the other is 33 rpm. CD tracks were recorded at 35 S. Raymond, Pasadena, on August 8 & 9, 1976. These improvisations were created originally for a film by video art pioneer David Em, while he was doing his residency at JPL (Jet Propulsion Laboratories) in Pasadena, about the Viking Space Probe to Mars. The film was never completed. Hand numbered edition of 700 copies.

Hard to find even when it was new, these are some of the last remaining copies of this amazing piece of music from the duo of Joe Potts and Joseph Hammer. Rubber stamped labels and clear plastic sleeves adorn the otherwise spartan packaging containing approximately 20 minutes of music per side. The price reflects the very limited nature of these records; your purchase goes directly to help fund future LAFMS projects—so buy a lot! And we’re still cheaper than Discogs!

After 30 odd years of very odd sound projects, Joe Potts finally cleared the edge and plunged disc-first squarely into the abyss. “Gift From The Dead” has got to be one of the most disquieting releases ever. To begin with, the disc consists of one 46-minute composition generated primarily from a defective CD combined with the dense washes of Joe's "chopped" optigon. And then there's those orgiastic shrieks from the anonymous vocalist. Finally (just for the sheer pop appeal) throw in some La Monte Young-esque chord extensions. And probably the most bizarre aspect of this CD is that although they have never been fused together in quite this way, all of these elements are ideas that Potts has been exploring for the last three decades.

Created from Potts bent version of the “Optigan”, a primitive optical “parlor organ sampler” made by the Optigan Corporation and marketed by Mattel Toys in the early Seventies. The recording additionally makes use of mixed subliminal audio.

A follow up to Duncan’s First Recordings 1978-1985 (V1.1) also available here, this five LP, one 7” box set contains more early material from this music pioneer. Limited, numbered edition of 600 copies.

Side A was performed at Sound concert series Los Angeles Institute of Contemporary Art (LAICA). Previously released asAQM201/LAFMS09.

Side B tracks 1 to 5 previously released as AQM202. Track B5 is the recording of an event for live radio talkshow with therapist Dr. Toni Grant, broadcasted in Los Angeles over KABC and nationwide over the ABC radio network.

Side B tracks 6 to 10 previously released as AQM203.

Side C previously released on Music - You Finish.

Side D previously released on Supplement.

Side E and side F tracks 1 to 3 recorded at Unomori, Tokyo. Track F3 is taken from a performance at Tengoku Chiyushiya Festival, Hibiyakoen Outdoor Amphitheatre, Tokyo 08/1983. Previously released as AQM204.

Side F track 4 written and mixed in 1984. A different shorten version was released on Assemblée Générale 5 in 1985.

Side G is a soundtrack to Move Forward Film Event at Plan B, Tokyo 1984. Previously released on Pleasure Escape in 1985.

Side H recorded live at Strange Fruits, Tsurumaki Onsen, Japan 1985. Previously released on AQM106.

Side I previously released on AQM107. This is the longer version, created for a longer video - the first attempt at a re-edit of John See Videos, as the commercial releases were intended to be modified by users - this suffered so badly from VHS-to-VHS signal loss that all colours were gone before it reached the final edit.

Side J recorded, written and mixed at Unomori, Tokyo. Previously released on Journey Into Pain (wrongly stated as "Live Anti Club Los Angeles").

Side K recorded 1978. Previously released on LAFMS: The Lowest Form Of Music.

Side L recorded live on 7th of March 1979. Previously released on LAFMS: The Lowest Form Of Music 10CD box set.

Recorded in various locations in Portland Oregon 1978 and 1979 as ” Real Time ” Improv. with no Overdubs, Edits, or Remixing . Some final EQing and Editing in Smegma’s Studio January 2013. Recording Quality varies.

Recorded at the same time as Pigface 004 (1980) This album embraces a rawer esthetic. Many tracks were recorded on portable Cassette decks with automatic level control . Ju suk plays Guitar, record Player, Bowed sheet metal, Trumpet, Vocals, Gnome Synth., 1880′s Pump Organ, Bass Guitar played with feet, and 1/4 inch Reel to Reel multi head tape loops all played in ”Real Time” no Overdubs, Edits, or remixing. (Pigface Records description)

30-year anniversary reissue of this LAFMS cassette artifact, in a deluxe gatefold double LP presentation. ACNoDE ONE was created by two of the LAFMS’s key members: Dr. Id and Ju Suk Reet Meate of Smegma fame. Recorded in 1977 as a hand-made cassette, side A was Dr. Id and friends and side B was all Ju Suk. With influences ranging from Beefheart, Nervous Norvus, and Ron Geesin through the whole ESP catalog, this is one of the defining examples of the LAFMS sound. They travel with ease from Zappaesque freak outs, teeth rattling tape loop drones; psychedelic kiddy record cut ups, to a beautiful bowed bass solo in the vein of Scott la Faro or Henry Grimes. It marks an important turning point in Smegma’s development. As Ju Suk points out, “It was a time of great transition. With only one Smegma ‘gig’ in two years, our music was going inward. The reel to reel tape decks at the time lent themselves to wild misuse… they were very exciting times experimentally.”

We have a limited amnount of these t-shirts in stock. Specially made for the LAFMS @ The Getty event December 3, 2011, with Le Forte Four, Smegma, Tom Recchion and Extended Organ. The concert was notable for a few reasons: it marked the first time the original line up of L-44 with Chip and Susan Chapman played in 30 years and also it marked the last time Extended Organ played with the full line up of Mike, Paul, Joe, Tom and Fredrik.

We have a few Large and Extra Large in stock. Select which size(s) you would like from the dropdown menu below. The shirts are grey, 100% heavy cotton.